Sacrifice
by PrInCeSsFBi
Summary: What the fuck did he mess up now? It's not like Anders could make him feel any worse. "The next time you even think about letting Mike sacrifice himself for your happiness you will answer to me. Odin or not. Do I make myself clear?"


**Disclaimer: I own nothing**

All his life Axl was the baby when it came to his brothers. Growing up, his brothers would bat him away from whatever schemes they were doing and coddle him when he would get upset that he was being left out. When he grew up it was still the same. Except now his brothers would just leave him out of things entirely. He was supposed to blindly trust them. But Axl hadn't done that in a while. He wasn't some kid anymore. His brothers didn't seem to see it that way.

"You," Anders said at a pointed look at Axl. "Come here."

Suddenly, Axl was seven and at the park with Anders pissed at him for wondering off. Mike raised a brow but didn't say anything and just walked into the chapel with Ty. His hands turned clammy on his palms and it still marveled at him how even now, when he was Odin, whenever any of his brothers got that face it made him feel like when he had gotten in trouble for breaking Valerie's antique vase again. He followed his brother, the short bastard that he is, into a private corner. Mike and Ty always were loud when they were angry but Anders's words were sharp like spears and his tone remained even making it unbearably terrifying.

What the fuck did he mess up now? It's not like Anders could make him feel any worse.

"The next time you even think about letting Mike sacrifice himself for your happiness you will answer to me. Odin or not. Do I make myself clear?"

For a moment Axl could only stare at his brother confused before he felt his heart drop into his stomach.

Yep, definitely felt worse.

"Shit," he breathed. Two times he had cut out without any other care but to see Gaia. _Two times!_

"Yeah. Shit." Anders said with hard eyes that made Axl squirm. Nothing looked different from the way Anders was acting. His hands were on his hips bringing his jacket to rest on his forearms. He looked all business and nothing else but Axl could tell he was in deep _deep_ shit. Shit that was deeper than the entire fucking ocean. So deep of shit that he was going to be eating shit for years to make up for it.

"I'm sorry!" He said. "I thought Mike was just being broody because of Val. I didn't think he-"

"I don't care." Anders's words were the same volume but the sharpness was there. Axl looked down at his feet rubbing clammy hands on his thighs. "Let me tell you something, Axl. I am helping you find your Frigg, so yes that I can be a true god, but not for some selfish prick to screw over everyone who made sacrifices for your well being."

Axl sighed and crossed his arms around his chest. A sharp whistle caught both of their attentions. Mike nodded his head in the direction of the chapel before he disappeared back into it. Ty's wedding was starting. Everything had just been fucked up in all different ways. "What should I do?"

"You want some advice? Start making some sacrifices of your own for this family." If Axl could have felt any lower, Anders sure was doing a great job at making him feel it. Without another word Anders turned on his heel and stalked into the chapel dropping himself into the seat next to Mike. Mike gave him a weird look but turned to look back at the wedding.

Mike seemed fine. At least he looked it. His face was set and his body was sturdy like it had always been during those unsteady times in Axl's life. In fact he looked more grounded than he had been in months. Valerie was like a mum to Axl but if it meant that they both would stop fighting and Mike stopped carrying around the weight of the world, then maybe the split was good. It was hard for him to understand the gravity of the sacrifices his brothers made and his memories were mostly just Anders feeding him and Ty lunch during the summers and then Mike taking over when Anders left for good.

He couldn't have gotten out any faster if he tried. He remembered a lot of Mike and Anders fighting. They all fought. Maybe it was a god thing, Axl didn't know. But Mike and Anders had fought the loudest and the hardest. The worst would be when Ty would get involved and all Axl could do was hide or go somewhere else until he was old enough to fight with his brothers too. He remembered a time when he thought Mike and Anders hated each other and they both thought the other was better off dead than in the other's life.

But when the concept of Mike dying, actually properly dying, Anders had panicked. Axl knew that his family thought he was an idiot and sure he missed some things but not that. Mike gave them structure but Anders had always known what to do when they had been growing up. Oh no, Ty has a project in school due tomorrow and they couldn't afford to buy the display supplies. Anders would scrounge up ways to make ends meet. When the quest for Frigg seemed endless, Anders was never short of a list of new tactics to sift through the masses of possibilities. But back in the office he didn't have anything. All his ideas were shot to hell and for the most part Mike's fate seemed sealed until Ty eventually took over. Ty always did that though. He was always able to look at a situation that became too heated for Anders and Mike to figure out.

His family was really fucked up. The only person he had been able to explain it to had been Zeb who was surprisingly able to keep up with all the shit they had been through.

Anders shot him a pointed look over his shoulder and Axl could only retreat to sit a few rows back. No one in the chapel seemed happy and it only weighed on Axl more. Mike looked ready to intervene by just a word from Ty, Olaf looked like that time when the weed he bought turned out to just be a bunch of dyed grass clips, and Ty and Eva both looked like they had just seen Zeb walk around naked. But he had never seen Anders look so tired. Not in the he didn't sleep because he had had endless amounts of partying and sex tired, but just the bone deep tired that made his face blank and devoid of any emotion.

It was the first time he had seen Anders sit down next to Mike willingly in years. As the wedding went on though he started to fall back into his miserable thoughts and dark mood which he suppose seemed fitting for Ty's wedding or at least a funeral by the way everyone felt.

So, yeah, he supposed he noticed lots of things now. He noticed the sacrifices his brothers made…eventually. He noticed the way Ty looked like he had given up on every being happy again. He noticed that he had made a mistake and he was going to have to fix it. He noticed the deep hole in his gut that had formed when Gaia had moved out. And he noticed the way Anders kept glancing over at Mike to see if he was still there, still with them, all the way through the ceremony.

**A/n: Feed the muse! Feed it *grawr***


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